


The War Experiments

by Salamon2



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Sarah Jane Adventures
Genre: Action/Adventure, Children's TV, Classic Doctor Who References, Gen, New Who, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2019-05-20
Packaged: 2019-08-11 07:50:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16471661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Salamon2/pseuds/Salamon2
Summary: Luke goes missing at the same time K9 and Mr. Smith are oddly disabled. The crew wonder where he might have gone, and who might have taken him. Meanwhile, Luke wakes up to find himself once again a test subject.





	1. Chapter 1 - Species 48507-B

**Chapter 1 – Species 48507-B**

 

The sound of screeching woke Luke, causing him to gasp and his heart to race. He was frightened from his dream--dream? He didn't dream, Luke knew that, and yet Luke knew he had dreamed, his dream where… he couldn’t remember why he was frightened and the dream was fading from his mind so quickly. What had woken him up?

 

His thoughts though were distracted when in the dark of the room he began to make out the shape of a large white box which loomed over the foot of his bed. It was unlike anything he’d ever seen.

 

“K9, analyze,” he said, with his curiosity peaking as his fear subsided the longer he stared at the white box.

 

But only silence came from the corner where K9 usually kept himself at night.

 

Thinking he hadn’t spoken loud enough, repeated himself, and still only silence.

 

Luke was about to get out of bed and wake his mum when something moved in the shadows of his room, causing him to stop midway through lifting the covers. A small red light appeared, aimed at him and he heard the hum of what sounded like his mum’s sonic lipstick, but somewhat different. Luke was beginning to grow tired once again as a figure stepped out of the shadows, the cold indifferent stare of the figure’s eyes being the only thing he could see before his head once again hit his pillow and a giant claw emerged from the shadows over his body.

 

~*~*~

 

Rani was looking forward to another weekend investigating some mysterious circumstance with her mates and Sarah Jane. She had finished showering and was in the midst of multitasking drying her hair and getting dressed. She didn’t want to miss any opportunity this weekend had to provide for an adventure. After finishing with her hair, she slipped on the pair of jeans, coral t-shirt and jean jacket she had picked out for today. She was just in the midst of tying her trainers when she heard the doorbell ring. Curious, Rani craned her head to get a better view of the front door from her window, only to see Sarah Jane standing there speaking with her mum and looking rather worried. Mum’s voice then called up from downstairs.

 

“Rani, come down.”

 

Grabbing her brush, Rani hurried out of her room and down her steps, multi-tasking once again as she rushed down the stairs to the front door that opened just at its foot.

 

“Hello, Sarah Jane, is something the matter?” asked Rani

 

Instead of answering her question, Sarah Jane answered with a question of her own, “Has Luke been over to visit this morning?”

 

Rani shook her head, confused as to why Luke might. “I was just finishing getting ready to come over and see you both.”

 

“I didn’t see him outside this morning when I went to fetch the paper,” added Mum, concern beginning to cross her face as well. She then asked, “Did he come home last night?”

 

Sarah Jane nodded, “Yes, he went up to bed and that’s the last I saw of him.”

 

“He must have gone to Clyde’s then. I’ll bet if you call his mum you’ll find the cheeky bloke snuck out last night to play some new shooting video game with him,” offered Mum, though Rani knew Luke would never do such a thing, nor would they exclude her from the invitation if they had. At least Rani, thought that was so.

 

“Perhaps, but it’s not like Luke to just wander off without saying anything,” said Sarah Jane with a strained smile which did not reach her worried eyes.

 

“If you want I’ll come with you and see if he’s at Clyde’s,” said Rani as she finished the last stroke of her brush and pushed past her Mum to join Sarah Jane on her front porch.

 

“I thank you Rani, but I’m sure your mother’s right and there’s no reason for you to come if that’s so.”

 

“And what if he’s not?” asked Rani, and she gave Sarah Jane a meaningful look that did not go unnoticed by her mum.

 

“And how Rani dear, are you going to find him with a hair brush?” asked Mum the moment Rani had stepped foot outside. Rani looked down to see that she hadn’t put down the hair brush.

 

~*~*~

 

Clyde was trying to get the woman he was drawing just as he’d pictured her in his dream. She’d been tall and thin with long dark hair, an angular thin boned face, and an uninterested look. He didn’t know why he had to draw her, but something was compelling him to before the memory of the dream completely vanished from his thoughts. He hadn’t changed out of his pyjamas because he had to draw what he’d seen. A knock came from his door.

 

“I’m up Mum,” he called to the door without stopping his drawing.

 

The door opened, and irritated, Clyde looked up and repeated himself only to see Rani standing there.

 

“I think that’s the first time I’ve been called mum,” said Rani who then took a closer look and smirked. “Nice pyjamas.”

 

“Oi, I haven’t had time to change.”

 

“And why is that?”

 

Clyde looked at his unfinished drawing and sighed, there’d be no way he’d finish it now or even explain why he’d thought he’d need to draw the woman from his dream, it all was just fading from his mind now. Best get ready for the day. “Never mind.

 

“Is Luke here?” she asked as she looked about his room.

 

“Isn’t he at home?” asked Clyde as he walked over to his chest of drawers and pulled out whatever shirt was on top, figuring that’d be good enough.

 

“Sarah Jane came over to ask if I’d seen him. She’s downstairs talking with your mum, who still thinks you’re asleep by the way.”

 

“What’s Mr. Smith say?” asked Clyde as he opened another drawer and pulled out a pair of jeans.

 

“He isn’t responding to Sarah Jane. It’s like he isn’t there at all. And K9 won’t respond either.”

 

Clyde stopped just before he was about to pull open his underwear drawer and turned to look at Rani. They neither of them said anything, the lighthearted nature of the visit completely ebbing away in that instant.

 

“Well, get out and let me get dressed, and we’ll see what’s up at Bannerman Road.”

 

~*~*~

 

They were in the attic right in front of where Mr. Smith was supposed to be, but only a wall seemed to be there now. K9 was motionless there in front of the dormant xylox as well. Sarah Jane paced from side to side as Rani and Clyde sat on the steps.

 

“Who would want to take Luke?” asked Rani

 

“The Slitheen tried taking Luke before,” offered Clyde.

 

“Or it could be the Bane, they're the ones who made him in the first place,” added Sarah Jane.

 

“What would either of them want with him now though?” asked Rani.

 

Sarah Jane frowned, and continued to pace.

 

“It could be the Trickster… perhaps he found some way to remove him from time?” asked Clyde.

 

“We wouldn’t remember him if he did,” dismissed Sarah Jane, her pacing growing more frantic by the moment.

 

“Then who would? I mean all we have to go on is that Luke is missing and for some reason Mr. Smith and K9 aren’t working. That only narrows down the list to some alien who’d want to hurt either of you. And that… well, that could be any number of the aliens we’ve encountered,” said Rani.

 

Sarah Jane sighed, “You’re right. But before we continue any more guesses, we need more evidence. Going with what we have doesn’t say very much beyond someone is trying to hurt me by getting to Luke, or simply just hurt Luke.”

 

“Well, you said the last time you saw him was when he went to his room, perhaps there was something there that you overlooked?” suggested Clyde.

 

“There was nothing there beyond the usual clutter of his room.”

 

“Are you sure?” asked Rani.

 

The three were rushing out of the attic and down the steps in the next instance, only to find the somewhat messy room of a teenage boy once they opened the door. The bed was disturbed, clothes on the floor, and homework was strewn about his desk—finished already of course, Clyde noted. They were all about to leave the room, upset at having found nothing, when Rani pointed out that oddly enough at the foot of the bed, a square patch of carpet was visible, as though something had cleared away the clothes and stood there for a time. Sarah Jane rushed out of the room immediately only to return a few moments later with a tape measure, taking note of the dimensions of the square imprint that the clothes ringed. When she had done so, Sarah Jane gave out a little laugh and looked visibly relieved.

 

“What’s so funny?” asked Clyde.

 

Letting the tape snap back into its plastic container, Sarah Jane stood and said with a smile, “Just as I thought, it’s just the dimensions of an old police box.”

 

It took a second for Clyde and Rani to realize what Sarah Jane meant by that, and when they did, joined Sarah Jane in feeling relief from their own worry.

 

“Lucky bugger,” said Clyde.

 

“When do you think they’ll be back?” asked Rani

 

“With the Doctor? Who knows. Could be in an hour, several years, or already have happened in Aberdeen. You never know with that man. But I’ll tell you one thing, whenever they get back, I’m going to give them both a piece of my mind. Come on now, let’s go see if we can’t figure out what’s wrong with K9 and Mr. Smith.”

 

~*~*~

 

Luke awoke to find himself no longer in his bed but tied down to what looked to be a large white empty room on a hospital bed of some kind, with some kind of medical machine nearby. He tried moving his arms and legs, only to find them restrained. He tried calling for help only to find a gag in his mouth stifling his screams. He struggled for a time against his restraints, but they were too tight for him to even try slipping out of them. After he’d about given up fighting against them, Luke heard voices approaching the large white doors of the room.

 

“He is everything I promised, is he not? A perfect genetically designed human with plenty of latent telekinetic abilities to tap into, an excellent specimen for any sort of scientific analysis you wish to conduct,” said a voice which sounded somewhat familiar to Luke.

 

“He’s rather on the young side for my purposes, but he’ll do I suppose,” responded a woman’s voice as the door opened, and Luke’s eyes widened as he saw a Slitheen following what looked to be a human woman wearing a maroon lab coat over a grey pantsuit and red blouse.

 

“You’ll set Korst Gogg Thek free then?” blathered the Slitheen almost pitifully. As the Raxacoricofallapatorian entered the room, Luke noticed her claws were dull, and she moved with a noticeable limp.

 

“Yes, yes, you can have him back, as we agreed,” dismissed the tall woman as she pointed over towards a wall where a red light illuminated itself in the shape of a red button. The Slitheen moved over to it and with one claw pressed the button only for a door to appear and open next to it and another hospital bed to roll out of it, with a large mutilated green monster tied to it. The deformed creature vaguely resembled a Slitheen, but one which looked distorted in shape with oversized muscles in odd places, bulging veins, and a twisted mouth stuck in the position of utter pain. The only thing which kept Luke from thinking it was dead were the few milky tears which came from the oddly unblinking black eyes and streamed down the green skin of his face.

 

“What’s this? You’ve… you’ve mutilated him!”

 

“You asked for your son and you’ve got what remains of him. Your deal said he was to be returned alive, and he is, nothing was said of whether he was to be returned untouched or not.”

 

“Treacherous time lord, you’ll pay for crossing the Slitheen!” snarled the Slitheen, who bared her dull claws and showed her mouth of several missing teeth, but ready to strike nevertheless its handicaps.

 

“I’ve grown tired with all these petty vendettas. They pale in comparison to the great temporal struggle.“

 

The Slitheen, angered, leapt, but before she could land, the woman swiftly pulled out what looked like Luke to be a sonic lipstick—only larger—aimed it at the wall behind the Slitheen, where not a moment later a get of clear liquid shot out from the wall hitting the Slitheen squarely and filling the room with the acrid sour smell of vinegar. Luke tried to keep his eyes open so he could see what was happening without getting any vinegar in them, but the vinegar’s aroma was making it harder, causing his eyes to water.

 

The Slitheen wailed and screamed just before she exploded and nothing was left but a green slime all over the room, coating not just Luke but the Slitheen body next to him. Luke stared wide-eyed in terror of the woman who had so casually and so easily killed the Slitheen she had done business with and it was then Luke saw the woman’s eyes and the same cold unfeeling disdain before he’d passed out.

 

The woman recognized his fear and without missing a beat pulled out a device into which she pressed a button and spoke to as she overlooked the mangled Slitheen next to Luke, “Serum test on subject species 48506 deemed a failure. Cause, unexpected reaction to calculus found in the intestinal tract resulting in petrification.”  
  
The woman then turned to Luke and coolly said, “Beginning serum test on subject species 48507-B.”

 

No one could hear Luke’s muffled screams, not his friends, not his mum, not anyone, he was truly trapped and alone, a test subject once again.


	2. Chapter 2 - Out of Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sarah Jane calls for outside assistance, while Luke makes an unlikely ally in an attempt to escape.

It took most of the day and what felt like blundering assistance from both Clyde and Rani, but luckily what was wrong with K9 wasn’t what had been wrong with him before, and with a little help from her sonic lipstick and some other tools she’d picked up from visitors to Earth, a very disoriented K9 was brought back online in time for tea.

“Are you all right K9?” asked Clyde.

“Affirmative, my diagnostics tell me my circuits were overloaded by a burst of sonic ion particle-beam.”

“Sonic ion?! But the only person left that I know with any sonic devices other than myself would be the…” started Sarah Jane, but she didn’t finish her sentence, instead choosing after a moment’s pause to say, “They’re such simple old technology compared to what most other civilizations use, most aliens don’t bother with guarding against them anymore.”

“That you know of, perhaps someone else you don’t know still uses it?” suggested Rani.

“It’s a possibility, but then why would aliens I don’t know kidnap Luke?” asked Sarah Jane. “What else can you tell us, K9?”

“I was taken by surprise as I was seeing Master Luke to bed. I could not say who it was who shot the particle beam. If Master Luke is missing, I must be defective to have failed in protecting him, Mistress.” The robot dog’s ears drooping in a manner which neither Rani nor Clyde had seen before.

Sarah Jane took to one knee and gave her dog a pet on his neck and reassured him. “No, K9, you did the best you could.”

“Not good enough,” whimpered K9.

Sarah Jane smiled sadly and asked, “Can you analyze what’s wrong with Mr. Smith?”

And just like that the dog’s ears perked up and he rolled himself into position in front of the wall which contained the Xylox. “Affirmative, Mistress.”

“Good dog, K9,” said Sarah Jane with a wane smile.

K9 was but a few moments into analyzing before he stopped and said, “The unit is not here, Mistress.”

“Gone?! Where could he have possibly gone, I mean he’s just a computer isn’t he?” asked Rani.

“Mr. Smith is a little more than just a computer, believe me, I’ve been inside him,” said Clyde

“What’s that supposed to mean?” asked Rani

 

~*~*~

 

Luke was awoken from his sleep by the sound of scratching. He could feel the gag that had been in his mouth when he’d fallen asleep was gone now. Groggily he looked over what he could see of the darkened room from his hospital bed. The other bed which had had the disfigured Slitheen on it was now empty, and Luke had barely registered that before a giant twisted green claw landed on top of Luke’s chest, one of the sharp claws pressing into his throat, without puncturing it. Black eyes met Luke’s in the next instant as the deformed face of the Slitheen leaned in closely.

“Scream and I’ll slit your throat, Luke.”

“Korst Gogg… Thek?” asked Luke as much as he could.

“So, you do remember me… well, that’ll make this all the sweeter.”

“You were petrified!”

“I was, until my mother’s amino acids sprayed all over my shameful body, reversing the process. That’s two parents I’ve lost thanks to you, Luke.”

“I—I had nothing to do with your mother’s death.”

The Slitheen’s eyes blinked and he paused before admitting, “Perhaps not, but it’ll be sweet to end yours in any case.”

“Or we could work together,” offered Luke, hoping that he could buy some time.

“Work together? What for?”

“We’re both prisoners of whoever it was that actually killed your mother. Alone we can’t do anything, but together, we might have a chance of escaping.”

“I could easily take that double-crossing torturer,” said Krost.

“Even with that built in vinegar spray? I mean, if she has that, what else might she have?”

Korst’s deformed face looked confused for a moment before the Slitheen took its claw and cut Luke free, nicking Luke’s left hand in the process.

“Ow!” exclaimed Luke as he rubbed the precise wound with his right hand. It was bleeding a little, but not a tremendous amount.

“That’s a reminder. The first moment you betray me, I’ll slit your throat,” growled Korst.

“Thanks,” said Luke with a hint of sarcasm.

“Was that irony I heard?”

“It was,” said Luke with a hint of pride. If Clyde could hear him now, he’d see his lessons weren’t going to waste after all.

“Well, what do you know, some things do change. Now get a move on. I want you between me and any potential vinegar spray.”

Luke, swung his legs to the ground and hopped down off the bed with ease, unaware that he was being observed from behind one of the walls which looked like glass from the other side, though appeared a solid wall from theirs. The Time Lady pressed a button on the control panel before her and spoke.

“Species 48507-B recovery from initial injection at 0500 hours. Scanners indicate the serum is just beginning to take effect, confirmed with display of ability. Heightened pituitary gland activity noted. Species 48507-B isn’t experiencing any further side effects from the serum at this given time, further observation and field tests required.”

And then the Time Lady smiled as Luke exited the room. Luke felt as though he were being prodded forward by the twisted claw of the Slitheen and to where… he did not know. The Time Lady smiled as she thought of the labyrinth that she’d had her TARDIS prepare for field testing her experiments. Now it was time to see if this sub-species of the Doctor’s favored planet was made of the rough materials of what the Time Lords needed to win the war. Gallifrey itself could well depend upon it.

 

~*~*~

 

“But if it was the Doctor who Luke went with, why would he take Mr. Smith or disable K9?” asked Rani

“He wouldn’t,” said Sarah Jane.

“Perhaps the Doctor was rescuing Luke from someone more dangerous?” suggested Clyde.

“If there was someone more dangerous in the house, then why not wake me?” asked Sarah Jane.

Rani couldn’t figure out a way to answer that and so she asked, “Is there some way you could contact the Doctor? I mean, just to be sure it was he who Luke went off with, and not someone pretending to be him?”

Sarah Jane looked at Rani as though she were about to say something and then decided against it, saying “I could always try his mobile.”

Not a second later, Clyde had pulled out his own phone and asked, “Now we’re talking! What’s his number?”

Sarah Jane laughed a tiny bit before saying, “You’re not going to get him on that.”

“But you said we could give his mobile a ring.”

Sarah Jane smiled as she pulled out a small ordinary flip phone and said, “Let’s just say that the Doctor’s number is out of service range for most mobiles. Luckily, I have a special one with a better coverage plan.”

Sarah Jane entered in the number and not a moment later was the attic filled with the sound of screeching breaks as a blue police box landed right in the middle of Sarah Jane’s attic. When the light at top had stopped flashing, out popped the face of an older man with grey hair and a long thin face.

“You rang?” asked the man with what sounded as a distinct Scottish accent to Rani’s ears before his face lit up fondly as he added, “Sarah Jane.”

“Doctor! You’re old again,” said Sarah Jane with what seemed to be both shock and fondness.

“I prefer the term ‘more mature looking’,” said the Doctor as he stepped out of the TARDIS followed by a young woman with a large frizzy head of hair.

“Bill, this is Sarah Jane Smith and her friends, Clyde and Rani. Sarah Jane is a dear friend of mine.”

“It’s lovely to meet you, Bill,” said Sarah Jane as she shook hands with the uni-aged young woman and gave her a smile.

“Bill?! Is that short for something?” asked Rani.

“It’s just my name,” answered Bill, as though she were thoroughly exhausted of giving that answer.

Clyde gave Rani a side-long glance, and nothing more was said about Bill’s name.

“Oh, a flip phone, bit behind the times,” commented Bill.

“Behind the times?” asked Clyde.

“Yeah, everyone’s got a smartphone now, don’t they?” mentioned Bill.

“What’s a smartphone?” asked Rani

“You’re joking, right?” asked Bill, and frowned when it appeared obvious that neither Clyde nor Rani were joking.

“We’ve gone back a bit in time, haven’t we?” asked Bill to the Doctor.

The Doctor brusquely added, “About a decade, or a little less.”

“Well then, you’ll find out in a few years… or maybe a few months… soon, yeah, you’ll find out about smartphones soon… uhh…”

The Doctor thankfully distracted everyone from the awkwardness of the situation by asking, “What can I do for you Sarah Jane?”

“You don’t happen to have another companion travelling with you at the moment, Doctor?” asked Sarah Jane in a rather subtle fashion for what she was really asking, Rani noted. Perhaps she was trying to hide the fact how worried for Luke she really was? Or maybe she was simply trying to keep things easygoing, until proven otherwise.

“No.” He said and then turned and corrected himself by saying, “Kind of, I mean, there’s Nardole, but he’s back at the University in 2017, so not at the moment, no.”

“So then, Luke’s not with you?” asked Rani, feeling a deep unsettling emotion form in the pit of her stomach.

“Luke? No.”

“You aren’t playing with us mate, are you?” asked Clyde, a deadly serious look crossing his face.

“Do I look like a liar?” retorted the Doctor, clearly bristled from the question.

Rani felt the need to say, “Clyde wasn’t saying that at all. Were you Clyde?”

“No.”

Sarah Jane then put up her hands and said, “We don’t need to start arguing amongst ourselves. Doctor, if you say you don’t have him, then I believe you. Clyde, Rani, I thank you for your concern about Luke, but I’m getting the feeling that perhaps it would be better if I just took this one on myself. I’ll keep you both informed, but for now the best thing for you two to do might be to go back home and enjoy the rest of your weekend. Besides, I’m sure you both have homework to finish.”

“Sarah Jane!” whined Clyde.

She said firmly in response, “It’s for the best.”

Rani however managed to think of a different approach, saying, “If the Doctor doesn’t have Luke, then how do you know that they aren’t going to come back for us?”

“And why would this mysterious they do that?” asked the Doctor.

Clyde thankfully was there to back Rani up. “Whoever took Luke and Mr. Smith, and disabled K-9 obviously did it to get to Sarah Jane. After doing all that the next thing would be to take us.”

“And leaving us behind and divided would be just the kind of situation that’d lead to us getting abducted,” added Rani.

“And besides, Luke’s gonna need his best mates when you do find him,” said Clyde.

“If they’re that concerned about their mate, perhaps it would be good for them to stay.” suggested Bill with an odd look about her as she said it, Sarah Jane noticed. The Doctor did as well.

“Am I to take from all of… that, that Luke has gone missing, correct?” asked the Doctor, his face growing rather serious.

“I woke up this morning to find my son missing, K9 deactivated by a sonic ion particle beam, Mr. Smith absent, and a space in Luke’s room about the dimensions of an old police box,” explained Sarah Jane rather collectedly before giving a sigh which showed how tenuous that control over her emotions was at the moment. Rani reached out and took her hand, which surprised Sarah Jane at first before warmly returning it and thanking her.

“If you don’t have him, then I am out of possible explanations,” finished Sarah Jane.

“If your husband is gone, perhaps he took your son with him?” suggested Bill, who was confused when the rest of the attic looked at her like she’d suggested the impossible. “Did I say something wrong?” asked Bill.

 

~*~*~

 

Luke felt as though he’d been walking for miles down endless twists and turns of passages, some of which ended in dead ends, and others which came to locked doors. At some halls Luke found stepping in a particular spot activating laser pistols whose blasts he had to duck or meander his way through. In another stretch of corridor, he heard what sounded like the grunts of some kind of animal up ahead and just as Luke was looking about him to try and see if he could come up with some kind of weapon to defend himself with, he saw Korst immediately shuffling down a different route and Luke following not long after him. Korst Gogg Thek only stopped his poor excuse of a run just before they came to a cliff that the alternate route came to without prior warning. Korst had struggled to maintain his balance at first, flailing back, as if he were trying to throw himself back from the edge of the sudden drop, but Luke had steadied him by grabbing hold of Korst’s one arm, keeping the Slitheen from falling to his death.

To which the Slitheen had shoved Luke back onto his behind and said, “I was handling it fine by myself!”

“Fine, next time, I’ll let you fall,” quipped Luke in retort, irritated by the ingrate before they backtracked and took yet a different path.

Whoever it was that had kidnapped them clearly wanted them for more than just test subjects it seemed, as the maze seemed laid out as a psychopathic torture, unless this was some kind of sick field trial. Luke was able to keep track of the amount of turns he’d taken in the labyrinth but it was getting a tad irritating doing so and having to adjust his pace so Krost could keep a pace with him when he took the lead. Krost with his foot dragging was only slowing him down.

“You move too fast, I… I can hardly keep up,” groaned the Slitheen with labored breath. It did not help that due to his deformities, the Slitheen could only walk in a sideways waddle, half dragging his overmuscled left leg that he could just barely lift off the ground with his normal-sized hip.

“I don’t want to be stuck in this maze a minute longer than I have to, especially with you.”

“Testy aren’t you?” quipped Krost.

“I have good reason to be, considering your record.”

“Just as I with you, human.”

Luke begrudgingly let the Raxacoricofallapatorian have that point.

Elsewhere in the TARDIS, the Time Lady frowned and pressed a button, causing the hallway where Luke was walking to begin to flood with fog from the air vents.

The air grew thick and harder to breathe as a gas of some kind flooded the hall. For some reason the Slitheen seemed completely unaffected by the gas, managing to pass the stumbling Luke as his eyes began to tear up.

“Don’t just stand there coughing, move if you want to live!” shouted Krost.

“I can’t… see!” coughed Luke.

“Then feel your way forward, you idiot!”

Closing his eyes, Luke put out his hands and fumbled forward. His arms preventing him a few times from crashing headlong into the walls.

“Follow my voice!” called out the Slitheen who seemed to be growing farther and farther away from the sound of things.

Luke was too short of breath to reply, instead putting all his remaining energy into moving forward. He couldn’t think straight, he couldn’t see, and he could hardly breathe right.

“If you’re going to get through, Luke, you need a reason to keep going!” said the Slitheen, again, sounding far away. Luke coughed in response, unable for form any words and still breathe, with how the cold gas knocked the breath out of him. Luke bent down low to the ground, finding some air he could breathe down there, but not much higher than he could crawl.

“Remember how much you wanted to hurt me, Luke?” asked Krost.

Luke vaguely recalled something, a momentary flicker of anger when he’d learned that he’d been kidnapped by the Slitheen. It had been gone as quick as it had come, but the feeling was still there, if not stronger now than it had been.

“You can’t hurt me if you just curl up and die now.”

Luke tried to crawl further forward, but found that was increasingly harder to do so.

“What about your Mum? You think if I survive this place that I’m not going to have my vengeance on her? Won’t it be sweet to finally have my father’s killer in my claws.”

At that Luke couldn’t help but imagine not himself beneath the claws of a Raxacoricofallapatorian, but mum… his mum. She was aiming her sonic device at the large green alien, only to have it knocked out of her hands and the claws begin to slash at her, blood appearing not long thereafter. No. No!

And suddenly Luke found he could breathe, and that the gas was gone from around him, in fact, as he blinked his eyes and breathed deeply in the fresh air his lungs so desperately needed, he couldn’t help but notice that an entire air bubble had surrounded him, forcing back the gas to outside its perimeter. Krost stood at the very edge of the bubble, smirking, and looking somewhat better than Luke recalled seeing him before—still looking disfigured, but at the same time, less so.

The Time Lady smiled from her control room, taking out the device to add, “Subject 48507-B’s exposure and repulsion to Skaro-based radiation, a proven success.”

 

~*~*~

 

The Doctor had finished scanning the clean square of floor at the foot of Luke’s bed with his screwdriver and frowned before putting it away and pulling out a pair of sunglasses and adjusting them on his face before leaning in.

“What’s he—” began Sarah Jane.

“Sonic sunglasses,” explained Bill before Sarah Jane had even finished her question. Sarah Jane stood just within the room, while Bill leaned her back against the doorway. Clyde and Rani sat on Luke’s bed as the Doctor examined the floor space.

“How can sunglasses be sonic?” asked Clyde, though Rani elbowed him for asking the question.

“A TARDIS did indeed land in this spot,” announced the Doctor after pressing the side of his glasses a few times.

“But how is that possible? asked Sarah Jane.

“I am not the only Time Lord left… not anymore. Though the temporal radiation left from this TARDIS seems to indicate it’s not from contemporary Gallifrey, which is curious.”

“But the Master doesn’t have a TARDIS.”

“The Master?” asked Bill.

“She means Missy,” explained the Doctor.

“Missy?” questioned Sarah Jane.

“Right, this is 2010, not 2017. The Master has regenerated into a Time Lady, calling herself Missy now. And she can’t possibly be behind this as I know exactly where she is.”

“But do you know where she was prior to that?” asked Sarah Jane.

“That doesn’t matter because I recognized the signature of the temporal radiation of the TARDIS that stood here the moment I saw it, and I can tell you it’s not Missy’s.”

“Then whose is it?” asked Bill

“According to the radiation signature I’m seeing, The Rani’s.”

“Me?”

“No, not you, Rani Chandler. THE Rani.”

“You mean to say that there’s a time lord—” began Sarah Jane.

“Time Lady.”

“Sorry, Time Lady, who calls herself The Rani?”

“I’ve known her almost as long as I’ve known the Master, though we never encountered her while you were traveling with me, Sarah.”

“And just what would The Rani want with my son?”

“The Rani is first and foremost a scientist. If she’s taken your son, it’s because she has the arrogance to believe she has the right to experiment on him.”

“What kind of experiments?” asked Sarah Jane.

The Doctor said nothing, only giving Sarah Jane a look, which said far more than words could have expressed, one which sent a shiver down Sarah Jane’s spine.

**Author's Note:**

> So this idea came out of the fact that doing some kind of story with the Sarah Jane characters who wouldn't leave my mind. I should note that I did not grow up with this TV show, but came upon it by accident, finding the idea of one of the Doctor's past companions having adventures of her own long after the Doctor left to be intriguing. I didn't fully watch the show however until a Doctor Who reviewer suggested the series as the best Doctor Who spin-off of them all, in which case I felt compelled to see if it lived up to such an estimation (which it did). It's such a sad thing that it ended so abruptly. Anyway, after watching the series, I came up with two ideas for stories which have plagued me off and on since then. This is one of them, the other I may write up one day if I ever get enough of a plot together to do more than scratch out a rough idea of what to do. As for this story, I hope the tone and references match the feel of the show overall (so that it feels like a lost episode of the show placed some point between Series 3 and 4), and that it's an enjoyable romp for you all. Maybe now the characters will leave me be for the time being.


End file.
